your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. the russian lawyer at the center of the trump tower meeting at the center of the russia investigation had far closer kremlin ties than she said or we knew. john berman in for anderson. she says she was a russian informant. at very nearly the same time this story broke, the republican-led house intelligence committee released its final report. the conclusion? no collusion. it says if irony has the world's greatest scheduler even as it

was revealed one potential includer, natalia veselnitskaya, who has denied any kremlin ties at all, is, in fact, an informant, the president was taking a victory lap. >> a great report. no collusion, which i knew anyway, no coordination, no nothing. it's a witch hunt. that's all it is. there was no collusion with russia. you can believe this one. there was -- she probably can't believe it, who can, but the report was very powerful, very strong. there was no collusion between the trump campaign and the russian people. as i've said many times before, i've always said there was no collusion, but i've also said there has been nobody tougher on russia than me. with that all being said, if we can get along with russia, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. but there has been nobody tougher on russia than me. i was very honored by the report. >> the intelligence committee report from which democrats on the panel dissented says the committee found no evidence the trump campaign helped with

russian meddling in the election. as for the trump tower meeting which donald trump jr., jared kushner, campaign chair paul manafort attended, and trump jr. was promised would include damaging russian intelligence on hillary clinton, the intelligence committee merely called their eager attendance an apparent willingness to collect russian information from america's chief nuclear adversary "an act of poor judgment." this is the meeting, just to remind you, that donald trump jr. was so hyped about beforehand, he wrote to the guy pitching it about the promised dirt, "if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer, i love it," after being promised "high-level and sensitive information, part of russia and its government support for mr. trump." "i love it," he said, about a meeting we now know ultimately included a russian informant. this was the meeting that donald trump jr. and later the white house made misleading statements about saying it was primarily about adoption.

don junior and the others at the meeting say the promised dirt never materialized. the fact is, though, no one except the participants knows what was said or where things went from there, if they went anywhere at all, and what, if anything, candidate trump was told about it in the building, in his office, on that day, in his office just a floor away from where the meeting happened. what we do now know is that one of the key players was lying about a key fact, her kremlin connections. this morning cnn's manu raju asked the republican who led the house intelligence investigation if he had known about it. >> not that i recall. that's new information. >> do you think that that's relevant? to what happened in the 2016 campaign? that she was a russian informant? >> well, there are lots of russian informants throughout the world that may or may not have any impact. i don't think you can talk about the 2016 campaign, what the russians did or didn't do, we were pretty extension out of that. >> so it was news to congressman mike conaway. new to the man who today released a report saying no collusion. the trump campaign met with a

russian informant. but to him, not significant news. not worth reopening the probe. in fact, nothing natalia veselnitskaya had to say was important enough for republicans to even invite her to testify in the first place. committee democrats in a dissenting minority report had a long list of people they say the committee should have spoken to but didn't and she was on it. so was reince priebus, stephen miller, senior fbi officials, russia experts. their list runs to more than 30 names which they say is symptomatic of a committee that was not interested in getting the full picture, including a phone call that don junior made prior to the trump tower meeting. >> we sought to find out is that blocked number donald trump's blocked number? we found out during the investigation that donald trump used a blocked number during the campaign. we asked to subpoena the phone records so we could match up, did donald trump receive a call at the same time donald jr. was making that call, to find out, did the president's son seek the president's permission, the go ahead, to go forward with the

meeting? the republicans refused. they didn't want to know. they wouldn't ask the phone company for those records. that tells you a lot about the fundamental unseriousness, really the head in the sand approach the gop took. >> the approach the republicans took has come in for more than a little criticism, unlike its senate counterpart, which is said to be a model of bipartisan cooperation. chair devin nunes, accused of carrying water for the administration and was exposed doing it on at least one occasion when he rushed to the white house to allegedly brief officials on what he said was damaging information he'd received about surveillance of donald trump, just days later turned out the whole thing was a scam and the information he supposedly just had to tell the white house was actually given to him by the white house. that actually happened. in america. nunes has also launched a probe of the fbi itself and publicly declared he has no faith in special counsel mueller's investigation. in february, republicans on the committee released a memo accusing fbi and justice

department officials of abusing their powers to spy on a former trump campaign adviser suspected of being an agent for russia, which convenient ly echoing administration claims at the time released over the republican trump-appointed fbi director's grave concerns about its accuracy. any one of those items would raise concern. every one of them, and there are more, raise questions that we will talk about tonight. first, joining us is sharon la freniere, one of the the "washington post" "new york times" co so -- correspondents on the russia lawyer now informant story. how has natalia veselnitskaya gone from saying she operates independently of any government bodies to admitting she as russian informant? >> i think what happened was that she was a little taken by surprise because we and nbc news obtained a series of e-mails,

exchanges between her and the russian prosecutor general, and a nbc news correspondent chased her down in moscow and i think she just blurted it out in her initial response when she was asked, what's your relationship with the prosecutor general? she said, well, it's a dual -- i have a dual role. i'm a private attorney, and i'm an informant. from there on, she backtracked. >> heck of a thing to have on your business card. this person she says she was an informant for, the russian prosecutor general, can you explain who he is, what role he may have played in this scenario, and perhaps what role he may have played in terms of wanting to get information to the trump campaign? >> so he's a key kremlin official, for sure. he's very high up. he's part of the russian security services. and he was the one, you might remember, who was mentioned in an e-mail that rob goldstone,

the intermediary, sent to donald trump jr. in 2006 when he was trying to set up the trump tower meeting. and in that e-mail he said that there's information that would -- was part of the russian government's attempt to help donald trump's campaign. this information would be delivered by a russian government attorney. but natalia veselnitskaya said she -- insisted she wasn't a russian government attorney, she was just a private attorney. but, you know, that -- by this point, i think her -- that assertion is pretty well shredded. >> yeah, i mean look, he was the guy, yeah, listed in the e-mail, the conversation to donald trump jr., as the one providing the dirt on hillary clinton. she, now we know, was an informant for this guy. any sense how long natalia veselnitskaya was or has been an informant to the office of the

russian prosecutor general? >> i believe at one point she worked for them or she worked for the regional office that was connected to them. and she has had close ties with them over the years. in this case, in two thousand -- the e-mails that we obtained, 2014, so two years before the trump tower meeting, right, and she and the prosecutor general's office were working hand in hand to secretly -- secretly hand in hand, to respond to a justice department request for evidence in a civil fraud case that was brought in a federal court in new york. and what the situation was, that our justice department had asked the prosecutor general to give us evidence against a russian businessman who was accused of money laundering. and natalia veselnitskaya was this businessman's defense

attorney. and what happened was behind the justice department's back, the prosecutor general went to natalia veselnitskaya and together, through a series of like 11 e-mails, they crafted a response. >> she's got a history. a history of operating -- >> a long history. >> -- of operating in this country. sharon, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. perspective now from former cia chief of russia operations steve hall. also "new york times" matthew rosenberg. he and steve are cnn national security analysts. as well former trump campaign deputy communications director brian lands. steve, i want to start with you here. when you hear a kremlin-linked attorney acknowledge she is a russian government informant, what kind of light does it shed for you now on what that trump tower meeting was about? >> well, john, you have to be careful not to sort of impose our western rule of law view on this. there's a lot of titles, informant, things being thrown around. the fact of the matter is vladimir putin runs an autocracy. when vladimir putin says, i want something done, it gets done. it doesn't matter what your

title is. what matters is when he looks around, who can he see to help him? so in this particular case he used the prosecutor general and said, do you have anybody you can send in to see whether there's an avenue here into the trump campaign? and sure enough, there was. i think if you step back and say, okay, what do we know for sure? we already know for sure the russian government was intent on attacking our elections. our own intelligence services have told us that. we know that natalia veselnitskaya got that meeting. we know ostensibly the reason for the meeting was because of the dirt on hillary clinton. what we don't know yet obviously is whether or not there's any reciprocity from the other side, from the trump team, whether or not there was anybody willing to cooperate or wanting to try to get that information. we have to remember what we're dealing with when dealing with the russian government. it's a unitarian approach and they'll use anybody they want, people like natalia veselnitskaya, to get whatever they want. >> we know donald trump jr., when told he was going to get dirt on hillary clinton, he said, i love it.

brian, now that we do know, at least according to her, that there was a russian informant in this meeting at trump tower, does it seem to you more than just the poor judgment that the house intelligence committee called it today? >> i think we know she lied to the senate intelligence committee. when you have to look at the veracity of somebody's credibility, that comes into play. we don't know what angle she has to play by saying that she was an informant. maybe to sow confusion, maybe to get the media worked up, maybe to get the democrats worked up to say, hey, maybe this investigation isn't concluded. you can't put a lot of weight on somebody who lied to the senate intelligence committee and is creating -- and is just sowing all this dissent when people have already come to a decision. >> it's possible she says she's an informant because she's an informant. >> sure, absolutely. but it's also correct if making that claim, she lied to the senate intelligence committee, which is a crime, which goes directly to her credibility, and she probably has limited -- >> if it's true that she was an informant, it's also true that she was trying to give dirt about a candidate to another candidate in the united states. matthew, the fact of this

meeting a year ago, when we learned about it a year ago, it's always been an extraordinary thing. that the son of the now-president was offered dirt from the russian government on the opposing campaign. so it's always been extraordinary when you look at it like that. now that we know, at least according to her, that there was a russian informant in the room, who maybe was there to deliver that dirt, what more does it tell you? >> i think -- the reasonable question, why are investigations pushed to end? when this seems like the kind of thing you'd want to dig into and find out, is she lying? what is her relationship with vladimir putin? why were they meeting with her? why was she there? what does this tell us about the relationship between the trump campaign and the russian government, if there was any? i want to talk more about what brian brought up. questioning saying, she lied once, do we really know if she's credible or not? this has become a very familiar kind of line of attack for president trump's supporters. whenever information is presented that is unfavorable to

the president, whether it is natalia -- i'm not going to mess up her last name on tv -- whether it is what she said today or the dossier put together by christopher steele, the former british spy. there are always what will -- do we know this? was it really just kremlin disinformation? that seems to be a familiar line of attack from president trump's supporters, when presented when information that is potentially damaging to the president, it's, well, maybe this is the kremlin trying to get it out there to sow dissension in the u.s. that could be the case, but we need a little more evidence of that. >> worth investigating more? matthew said at least investigating more, she says she's an informant -- >> you have the senate investigation going on the mueller investigating going on. this house partisan investigation was never going to be the one that got to the truth of anything. it became nothing but a leak factory for the democratic party. and it also became an issue where it brought up possible malpractice at the fbi. that's all this sort of house investigation committee -- >> it was also devin nunes, who had to recuse himself because of

questionable activity. >> sure. absolutely. and it's also the fbi that refused to turn over documents to the house committee investigating. >> i want to get back to our intelligence guy in a moment. but matthew, we can assume that mueller is all-in on natalia? >> i would have to imagine. or at least be looking at her. i can't imagine they would be saying, don't worry about that, she's got to be somebody they're looking at, what her role was, why she was at that meeting. >> you say we have to look at the big picture, remember vladimir putin is an autocrat, runs the government from the top-down. given that, we know this woman who says she was a russian informant was at this meeting. fair to assume that the highest levels at the kremlin knows everything about this meeting? were told everything about this meeting? >> almost absolutely. you have to remember vladimir putin is a former intelligence officer himself. so he's going to talk an interest in what at the time must have been one of the biggest if not the biggest influence operations that he had

going on at the time. looking straight into the white house and into the candidates involved. but again, i have to get back and emphasize the point that everybody in that room, every single russian in that room, when they return to moscow, was probably debriefed by the fsb or svr, one of the two russian intelligence services. whether one calls themselves an informant or has whatever ties they have, they are all going to go home and pay the piper, they're going to talk to the services, or to vladimir putin, whoever he says, and they're going to get fully debriefed on what's going on. what would be interesting is whether natalia veselnitskaya had any additional tasking. whether she was told, hey, if you do get this response from donald trump jr. or anybody else in the room, we'd like you to do this, that. that we don't know yet, which is something that i would entrust folks like the mueller team to try to get to the bottom of. >> is she the type of person who would be used to deliver dirt on a candidate? is she the type of person who

would be used not just to gather information, but to deliver it? >> sure, there's a whole bunch of roles for these different types of folks. i heard phil mudd talk about access agents, somebody who has access to somebody that you want, like donald trump jr. there's agents of influence, people who can be told, we want you to spin a message to people in the room to try to get a particular message across. natalia veselnitskaya is somebody who could very easily be somebody like that, in my view. >> all right, thank you all very much for being here tonight. breaking news in the stormy daniels case. not the federal michael cohen criminal hearing in new york over access to documents seized from him, no. the lawsuit against michael cohen in california. the judge in that one has put things on hold for 90 days while the criminal investigation back here in new york can proceed. michael cohen had asked to halt the lawsuit because he plans to assert his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself. the judge says because cohen was the alleged mastermind behind the hush agreement and settlement payment with daniels, he would have to choose whether

he would take the fifth to defend it or defend himself on every major aspect of the case so the judge says timeout for now. a lot more to come tonight. next, breaking news, dr. ronnie jackson and his current status at the white house. also, more on those allegations that he hands out all kinds of pills like so much candy. fact-checking the president's claim that the demise of his va nomination was due in part to a witch hunt. later what comes after the historic handshake between kim jong-un and his south korean counterpart. breaking news just in to us.

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breaking news just in to us. dr. ronny jackson, the white house -- a white house official says dr. jackson has returned to the white house medical unit, but has not returned as the president's physician. the official says it is unclear if that will happen. another physician we are now told has been serving as the president's doctor since the jackson nominations, since he was nominated to be secretary of veterans affairs, although he may have pulled the plug on his bid to run the veterans affairs department. the questions that torpedoed the nomination has not gone away. we have new reporting on that tonight, we'll bring you that momentarily. first the president's two-word take on it. >> they have this witch hunt going on. with people in the justice department that shouldn't be there. it's a witch hunt. it's a witch hunt. that's all it is. >> a witch hunt, he says. but that's not quite all he says. >> ronny jackson, admirable doctor, is one of the finest men

that i've met over the last long period of time. high quality. high-quality family. i just met them. and i explained what happened. i explained that washington can be a very mean place. to make statements of things that most people said never happened. never even happened. calling them names. was to me a disgrace. an absolute disgrace. >> sure, washington really can be a rough and tumble place where your only friend, as someone once said, is a dog. still, still, it is a little rich for the president, this president, to call anyone out for name-calling. >> crooked hillary clinton. little marco. lying ted cruz. lyin' ted. oh, i don't know what i said, uh, i don't remember! rosie o'donnell's disgusting. i mean, both inside and out. you take a look at her, she's a slob.

he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured, okay? rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. jeb bush is a low-energy person. for him to get things done is hard. maxine waters, a very low iq individual. we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago, they call her pocahontas. >> on a more serious note, the president specifically objected to democratic senate veterans affairs committee member jon tester coming forward with many of the allegations against dr. jackson, including some people called dr. jackson "the candy man." the president did not say is just what a long tradition of bipartisanship the panel actually has when it comes to the va and who runs it. with more on the bipartisan concerns about dr. jackson and what the lingering allegations mean for his current job as white house doctor, we're joined by cnn's phil mattingly. phil, just to be clear, when it

comes to dr. jackson, the concerns spanned across the aisle, correct? it wasn't just democrats who had issues here? >> reporter: yeah, look, if you want to look back, john, the reality is this nomination was on thin ice before the allegations even came out. i talked to a number of republican senators weeks ago who were very concerned about the qualifications dr. ronny jackson brought to the job and were very frustrated with the fact that there was almost no consultation, if any at all, before the nomination by tweet that we saw that brought him to the table. now that actually has real meaning. because when these allegations came to light, there were no natural allies that were willing to come out and fight for him. there's not a lot of enthusiasm. and so as each allegation came out, you would talk to senators, one told me flatly, so basically if any one of these is true, this nomination is done. as we all know, it didn't even take that. >> how much of the blame are lawmakers laying on the white house right now for not vetting dr. jackson more thoroughly, or at all, frankly?

>> reporter: yeah, it's a major focal point of theirs right now. not vetting, also not communicating. take for example the top republican on the committee overseeing the nomination. when these allegations started to surface he called white house chief of staff john kelly, told him what he was hearing, raised the concerns, and said kind of what do you want us to do next? he got nothing in return is what i'm told. you have several senators as the allegations came out and became public who also called the white house, sources tell me, they got nothing in return. you basically had senators and staff who were operating in a complete vacuum of information. in fact, when the pushback actually started from the white house, which you saw rather fiercely a little bit after these allegations came out, they put out a two-page fact sheet they sent to capitol hill. that fact sheet reached staffers after it reached the media. these are all major problems when you're trying to rally a defense to a nominee in trouble. >> there will still be a determination here, because he's back being the president's doctor despite these serious allegations? >> reporter: that's exactly right. he's working day to day.

look, the primary reason he's working day to day in the white house right now is the president. and there's no shortage of support from the president. we saw that once again today, about how much the president thinks of ronny jackson, how much he thinks of his family. but the reality is there are a lot of allegations. some of which are very damaging. i can tell you there's a lot of republicans who didn't support the nomination who are uncomfortable with the fact that none of them have been confirmed to be true yet, but as you noted, that should come in the future because the senate still has a say over what happens next with ronny jackson. >> phil mattingly on capitol hill, thanks so much, phil. m.j. lee joins us with more news on dr. jackson and questions about husband drug-dispensing practices. m.j., you're learning new things about the white house medical unit. what can you tell us? >> yeah, you're right. that medical unit is a clinic at the white house run by jackson. and we have some new reporting about a number of troubling practices there. we spoke with five former and current employees who worked for jackson at the medical unit and they described a grab and go culture.

when it comes to the medication. white house staffers and officials could get prescription drugs without so much as consulting with a doctor first. they could casually pick up ambien. this is a very powerful sleeping aid. not just for themselves, but even for their children. and sometimes, we are told, that prescription was written for someone other than the person that the medication was for. and the key here is that according to our sources, all of these questionable practices were endorsed by jackson himself. there was such loose control of prescription drugs that multiple people said there was sometimes even a scramble to try to account for these missing medications. now jackson did not comment for this story that we broke today, but do keep in mind when he withdrew his nomination for va secretary yesterday, he said the allegations made against him were completely false and fabricated and that he always adhered to the highest ethical standards. >> m.j., i understand you're learning some specific examples of when things like this happened?

>> yeah, two examples i want to draw attention to. one we were told a well-known obama official was leaving the administration, and he went to the medical unit to get some provigil, a prescription medication that helps you stay awake and alert. the person was given around 20 pills and it was treated as a kind of parting gift for that official. the second example is that one obama white house staffer went into that clinic and demanded that he needed zpac, a strong antibiotic that treats infections. one of the doctors at the clinic said, no, you need to first get an exam, because there are serious heart issues that can come from taking this antibiotic. and that white house staffer then got frustrated and responded, dr. jackson said i can just pick it up and i don't have to be seen. and ultimately, we are told, that that person was given the zpac without any kind of exam. so that certainly gives you a sense of the casual way in which we were told people could get prescribed meds at the clinic.

and the question tonight, of course, is whether jackson will be able to keep his job. >> m.j., at this point we know that he's not serving as the president's doctor, though he is working in the medical office. we're getting more information on that as we speak. m.j. lee, thanks so much for that report, appreciate it. coming up, historic handshake, a commitment from north and south korea for peace and unity, will it hold? and how much credit does president trump deserve? we'll talk about it next. ♪ i thought i was managing my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. but i realized something was missing... me. the thought of my symptoms returning was keeping me from being there for the people and things i love most. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira can help get, and keep,uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts so you could experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,

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truly remarkable day on the korean peninsula. a day-long summit between the leaders of north and south korea resulted in a signed declaration and commitment to denuclearize and bring a formal end to the korean war. an agreement, if it holds, that will be 65 years in the making. north korea leader kim jong-un and south korean president moon jae-in met in the demilitarized zone, shook hands, and spoke alone for over 30 minutes. and for the first time in history, a north korean leader stepped across the demilitarized zone into the south. addressing the international media live on television for the first time, kim said the koreas will be reunited as one country. kim is also expected to meet with president trump in the coming weeks. today the president said north korea has played past presidents like a fiddle, but that this time it will be different. >> we get a kick every once in a while out of the fact that i'll be watching people that failed so badly over the last 25 years explaining to me how to make a deal with north korea.

i get a big, big kick out of that. but we are doing very well. i think that something very dramatic could happen. they're treating us with great respect. this should not have been left for me to handle. but we will handle it. we're handling it well. and hopefully there will be peace for north korea, south korea, germany, i mean, everything is included. japan. >> joining me now, david axelrod and john kirby. i think we'd all agree, this was an incredibly hopeful picture to see, and something that the whole world is rejoicing in its own way. president trump is taking a victory lap for this moment. while there's a long way to go, admiral, is he wrong? should he get credit for this breakthrough? >> i think he certainly deserves some credit, john, no question about it. the trump administration really did help spearhead a much more aggressive international campaign of economic pressure that obviously has taken a toll on the north. so i think, yes, he deserves

some credit here. plus the uncertainty. his bellicosity and uncertainty i think has rattled people not just on the peninsula but elsewhere in the region. but it isn't just him. president moon jae-in deserves a lot of credit. he was elected in part because of his platform of wanting to engage with the north. he got ahead of this administration when he invited north korean athletes to participate in the olympics. he's been driving a lot of this. and number two is kim jong-un. he's not his father. he's going to be able to come into these negotiations much more capable with his nuclear and ballistic missile program which makes him more credible at that table. he's also driving this and he would be foolish not to take advantage of the moment he finds himself in, both from his own capability and from having a south korean president across the border who is willing to talk and to engage. >> david, just a few months ago, president trump was trading these huge insults with kim jong-un on twitter, bragging about who has the bigger button

on his desk. today he said that the united states in the past was "played like a fiddle." he means past presidents. he means president bush and president obama. looking back, is that a fair criticism? were those presidents played like a fiddle? >> i think it's a fair criticism that past presidents have not been able to solve this problem. and in fact the north koreans have defied the world community and they have not been trustworthy in past agreements. and so rather than spiking on the 20 yard line, i think the president should learn from that past experience and understand that it's hard to get from "a" to "b" here and then to "c." what is said at that negotiating table and what follows in terms of the actual fleshing-out of any framework is going to be very, very important. north korea is the least-transparent country in the world, probably. they have never shown a penchant for opening up their borders to inspectors and the kinds of

processes that would be required to enforce some sort of agreement. so one hopes that -- my concern about the president, i agree with everything that john said -- my concern about the president is just that he not be overeager to say that he has won a great victory that no other president has won, because there's a long way to go here. >> admiral, there's so much criticism and so much focus on the words that president trump has chosen over the last year in his exchanges with kim jong-un. but looking back now, is it possible that this madman theory might actually have worked? >> yeah, john, but again, i don't think it's been the sole factor. i do think he has bred some uncertainty in the minds of the south koreans and the japanese. and even the chinese. i do think that there's something there. but to hang it all on that i think would be way premature and not a full understanding of what's going on here. again, politically you've got a different administration in

seoul that wants to engage. kim jong-un has capability that is undeniable that gives him more credibility at the table. there's a lot more into this. i would be loath to give trump credit for his bellicosity as the reason we're here. >> he exudes confidence, that he's the only person, the right person to get all of this done. how will that confidence serve him well in negotiations, and how might it handicap him? >> well, look, it's gotten him here, okay? so that's a plus. what's important in these situations is to know what you need to know, and know what you don't know. this is not a real estate transaction. this is deadly serious business. and it's very complex. and so you want people around you and you want to rely on them who understand those complexities so that you're not in service of making a deal agreeing to things that ultimately are not enforceable, bad for our national security.

one thing, john, that i noticed today was when the discussion shifted to iran, you heard some of the same bellicose language that you heard about north korea a few months ago. so he obviously believes bellicosity and threats work. >> david axelrod, admiral john kirby, thanks for being with us. have a great weekend. up next, the mysterious dismissal on capitol hill. speaker paul ryan asks the house chaplain to resign with no real explanation. now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding answers. i'll speak to one of them in just a moment.

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there is outrage on capitol hill over the mysterious ouster of the house chaplain. father patrick conroy spent nearly seven years on the job before announcing last week he would be involuntarily stepping down. his last day will be may 24th. house speaker paul ryan asked for his resignation. according to house republicans at a closed meeting this morning. ryan told the caucus his decision was not tied to political pressure or even a prayer the catholic priest gave on the house floor last fall. instead ryan said there were complaints father conroy wasn't doing enough pastoral care on capitol hill. 184 house members, including some republicans, are furious. they've signed a letter to ryan demanding answers. democratic congressman jerry connolly is one of the lawmakers. we had a chance to speak a little earlier. congressman connolly, at this point, do you have any real understanding of why father conroy was fired? >> no. frankly, speaker ryan has given

no official reason at all. he didn't give a reason to father conroy, he didn't give a reason to leader pelosi. apparently in his caucus this morning he indicated vaguely that there was some members of his caucus who were told they had not been properly responded to in terms of ministerial needs. other republicans spoke up saying that was too vague and they didn't accept that explanation. certainly on the democratic side, we don't accept that. we've never had a complaint about father conroy in seven years. >> the chaplan thinks that part of the reason he was fired was a prayer he gave on the house floor back in november when he says speaker ryan's office took issue with as being too political. let me read this. "may all members are mindful of the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success while others continue to struggle. may their efforts these days guarantee there are not winners and losers under new tax laws but benefits balanced and shared

by all americans." do you read that prayer as being political at all? >> no. no, i think that's just kind of classic standard spiritual guidance. and very consistent with catholic social justice doctrine, i might add. in fact, it's almost laughable, except it's not, that invoking fairness and remembering those less fortunate apparently is now a firing offense here in the house of representatives. i mean, with that logic i'm surprised paul ryan didn't attempt to fire pope francis when he came to town. because believe me, he not only believes that, would say that, he'd go further. >> well, the speaker's office says it's not political. again, that's coming from some things father conroy said. go ahead. >> well, of course, what else are they going to say? but, you know, in the old expression, you know when they say it's not about money, it's about money? when they say it's not political, it's political. >> what do your republican colleagues, mark walker who's part of the group searching for the next chaplain suggested that

the replacement they find, this is according to him, they want a replacement that can connect with the bulk of lawmakers and the problems they face with children or a spouse. so suggesting they want to find a chaplain who has children. which would rule out any catholic priest. do you think that's fair? >> it's not only not fair, it's a bigoted statement. it is clearly discriminatory on its face. and no catholic missed that. but you don't have to be catholic to pick up discrimination. and bigotry. now i will give congressman walker his credit. he has spent a good part of this morning on the floor one on one talking to those of us who are involved in this issue, both to apologize and to acknowledge that he recognized the impact of his words and will work to do better. i admire that, i accept his apology, and i hope that now, better informed as a member of the search committee for a new

chaplain he'll bring new sensitivity to the job. >> good to know that, i didn't know that dialogue had happened. >> it's to his credit as a gentleman. >> the resolution call for investigation into why the chaplain was fired was voted down. any further recourse at this point that could help get father conroy back? any other repercussions? >> i think for one thing, i just closed a letter today with my republican friends, walter jones, 150 signatures on it, it's going to speaker ryan, asking for a detailed explanation and justification for this action. we look forward to speaker ryan's response. if there's not a response, or it's not adequate, then i think we're going to revisit this issue on the floor. today's privileged motion is the opening salvo of what i think is going to be an ongoing problem until speaker ryan is more forthcoming. >> congressman connolly, thanks for being with us, have a nice weekend. >> my pleasure, john thank you. breaking news on the russia informant who met with the trump campaign.

also, late reporting on the status of white house doctor ronny jackson. stay with us. ♪ what is it? the next big thing in food was once a little paper box. now we can easily take out food from a restaurant. let's stay in and binge-watch the snow. genius. now, the next big thing is the capital one savor card. good choice babe. oh, wait, hold on. earn 3% cash back on dining, 2% on groceries, and 1% on all other purchases. what's in your wallet?

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this week. it takes anthony all the way to west virginia. look at a quick clip. >> to think about much less empathize somebody who comes from five generations of coal miners from a place looking like this. why can't these coal miners be retrained put up solar panels for a why would these people vote for the a married billionaire new yorker. i went to west virginia. and you know what, screw you. in the heart of every belief system i ever mocked or forgot against i was welcomed with open arms by everyone. i found a place both heart breaking and beautiful. >> a anthony and anderson recently talked about the new episode at hidel burg restaurant here in new york where they drank beers very, very big. >> cheers. >> cheers.

>> how can you not get any stuff on your face. >> practice. practice. practice. >> so this episode you go to west virginia. >> yes. >> why west virginia? >> because i like to ento do counterintuitive shows. i figure they live very differently from what i understood in west virginia than the neighborhood i grew up in. >> have you ever been. >> i've never been. they are a conserve state. went solidly for trump. it's god, guns, trump and football country. some of the most rewarding experiences i've had overseas have been in places different than the world i grew up in. i enjoy going to places in america and my own country with the same attitude. >> what was different? what did you learn? west virginia.

>> well first of all, it's spectacularly beautiful. i mean it is really incredibly beautiful there. there is a reason people live there. there is a reason that people have stayed there for so many generations. what really surprised me or what i learned was how deep coal cultured goes. >> it's generational. >> we're talking almost everyone i met. with third, fourth, fifth generation coal mining families. they're very, very proud of that tradition. you know, coal culture, you're going to grow up to be a coal miner is almost taut in school. it was encouraged to suggest blindly we can retrain them to install solar panels is a elitist and frankly offensive talk that's not making you any friends and not helping you win elections that's for sure. >> is there a particular cuisine that. >> yeah. appalachian cuisine is interesting.

it's traditionally a hunting and gathering culture. a lot of the food is based on what's available. and how, you know -- how to make it delicious, when you're -- you're dealing with squirrel you got to get creative. i'm in the saying everybody eats squirrel all the time. it's not a staple of west virginia cuisine. but it's just about everybody i met down there knows how to dress one if they need to. >> tune in for parts unknown sunday night at 9:00 eastern on cnn. and next on 360 what could be a significant development. the russian lawyer who attended the trump tower meeting revealed herself as of an informant to the kremlin. that and breaking news on the status of ronny jackson as the president's physician as allegations against him continue to grow. of employers agree that skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and customer service are critical to business success. like the ones we teach here, every day.

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